What about electric vehicles

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TL;DR

Hot take

Electric cars are better than ICE even if powered by fossil fuel generated electricity.

But walking, riding a bike, taking public transport are all lower carbon emissions options than yet another car.

Explanation

Almost as polarising as climate change itself, electric vehicles are very well caught up in the culture wars.

Some electric vehicle facts

Yes it takes more carbon emissions overall to manufacture a BEV - but after around 25,000kms of driving EVs are lower emissions, even if powered by fossil fuel generated electricity.
They are getting cheaper at a rapid pace but are still expensive. Second hand EVs will be help make them more accessible to more people.
You can charge them from a normal power outlet (well except in the US because of their ridiculous 110v electricity network). Electricity is already everywhere!
While public transport, walking and riding are better options than any EV we live in a car-centric world. This is the missed opportunity of just replacing every ICE vehicle with a BEV.
If you have a relatively new ICE car - drive it until it dies. Replace with an EV when you can. Someone who buys a new EV every 2 years compared to someone who drives their ICE for 15 years isn’t really making the difference they thought they were.
People drive shorter distances than they think, the data proves it. Obsession with extended range and cars that go forever means we’re putting more resources into these BEVs than necessary.
Yes there’s still mining involved, nobody said a decarbonised economy would have no mining. There’s still plenty of work for people who love to dig up stuff.
They’re the future of driving whether you believe in climate change or not. They’re just better cars to drive and require less maintenance.
The disruption to the workforce of mechanics who service ICE vehicles has been overlooked, part of what should be included in a just transition. Will they be retrained?
We focus on the % of new car sales, but it takes time to replace the entire fleet.
Norway is a world leader in the EV rollout. That was achieved by their government prioritised emissions reduction. Reducing transport sector emissions was the focus.
If you can afford a $100K BMW / Audi / Mercedes etc you can afford a BEV. If you really wanted to make a difference you’d find the BEV for you instead of leaving it to others.
Everybody is focused on long-distance trucks for road transport, but huge gains will be made with local delivery vehicles becoming electric.
Electric vehicles are less noisy for the driver which means they arrive better-rested, and you can leave the air conditioning on when unattended, another great benefit for local delivery vehicles.
EVs with a vehicle-to-load functionality can power small appliances. In a power outage your BEV becomes a mobile power station. This Queensland woman used her EV to power her son’s dialysis machine during a power outage.
Early generation cars like the Nissan Leaf had no, or poor battery management systems which led to their battery decreasing capacity rapidly over time and shorter range. Lessons have been learnt and most modern BEVs the battery will outlast the life of the car.
The batteries from BEVs can be repurposed as stationary batteries for households or grids. Batteries don’t just stop working like a AA, they can degrade to a point where the car range is no longer useful. But that doesn’t mean they are at end of life.
It takes a lot of electricity to refine oil into gasoline / petrol / diesel. If you took that electricity and plugged it straight into BEVs you’d be saving already. Critics of BEVs often ignore this, while criticising the fossil fuel generated electricity being used to charge a BEV - that same electricity is refining oil into fuel so there’s all kinds of emissions problems with ICE vehicles.
Ownership is still skewed towards homeowners with off-street parking which makes it easier for charging. We need to do more work for apartment dwellers and renters.
Public charging infrastructure is variable in availability and reliability, but over time will improve and stabilise.

Other ways to decarbonise the transport sector

EVs get all the attention when we think about decarbonising the transport sector, but there are other policy settings that are easily overlooked:

Public transport
Better cycling infrastructure
More support from work from home
More walkable cities

At the moment we’re pretty hell-bent on replacing like for like because our world is so car-centric. It’s a missed opportunity.

Should you buy one?

If you’re in the market for a new car and want to lower emissions, then yes please get a BEV.

Like I said, if you’ve got a relatively decent car now you’re better off driving it into the ground. The emissions of manufacturing it are already out there. I think the longer we all keep our cars the overall lower emissions we’ll create. Of course capitalism demands that the line goes up and that includes car manufacturers so they want you to buy a new car quite often.

Some myth-busting

What about hydrogen cars?

Nope. At most I think we’ll see hydrogen used as fuel for niche transport - extra-heavy machinery or industrial uses. The race for cars has already been won by electric cars.

What about solid state batteries

Nope. Maybe. You can wait forever for the next technology because there’s always something better coming along. I think the hype around solid state batteries is mostly a delaying tactic now from incumbent manufacturers like Toyota who don’t want you to buy a current EV. Even if you bought one now, you’ll get many years of great driving done before any next generation battery becomes widely available.

But you still need plastic / steel / rubber tyres!

Yep. We’re still going to need some fossil fuels, that’s why it’s net-zero. We’re going to have to decarbonise steel as much as possible as well. All the more reason to leave carbon offsets to balance out these really hard things and not fritter them away on eCommerce or holiday flights.

But the cobalt and rare earth minerals!

Anti-EV types love to complain about the cobalt child mining slaves, ignoring the fact that cobalt is also used by ICE vehicles. And mobile phone and laptop batteries. Cheaper BEVs actually have a type of battery chemistry known as LFP, and it doesn’t require cobalt. But this is splitting hairs - there’s plenty of exploitation in the manufacturer of all modern electronics and vehicles that should be eliminated. Maybe something to tackle as part of a just transition if we’re serious about it.